Cooking
by TopazSunshine
Summary: Everyone has a weakness. ―DiamondPlatinum


_AN_

_This story is going out to a lot of people:_

_This story is **in memory of: **The awesome Home Economics group 2012. I swear, the seven of us always had the most hilarious lessons together, and every lesson was filled with so much laughter, despite it being out last year in school together. I still laugh over our cooking disasters. You guys are awesome._

_This story is **for: **MY little brother, **DIAMONDGIGAS**, and my mother **MamaMint** (Gigas' nickname for our mother lols). This story is their birthday present, and both of their birthdays fall on the same day. Happy Birthday, Mum and Gigas!_

_This story is **also another birthday present for: **DIAMOND! His birthday is on the fourth of April, which is like really close to Gigas' birthday. Happy early birthday to you, Diamond, NOW GO CONFESS TO PLATINUM._

* * *

Platinum couldn't cook.

It was a pretty well-known fact among her friends after she had accidentally set off the smoke detector in her kitchen once, when Sebastian, her butler, had reluctantly allowed her to try cooking. And it wasn't from leaving something in the oven or anything like that.

The maids who had rushed into the room when the alarm went off were pale with worry, afraid that the heiress had burned the kitchen, or had hurt herself. However upon arriving at the kitchen, they realised it was nothing of the sort. They were greeted by a sheepish looking heiress, who was standing in the midst of the kitchen looking at a loss.

After whisking her off to the doctor immediately and checking her through for injuries, they then realised that it was only her pride that was hurt.

After all, who could set a smoke alarm off when boiling water?

* * *

It was so embarrassing.

Platinum was the daughter of two well-known researchers and the heiress of the wealthy Berlitz family. She had won countless awards for her studies and had been helping Professor Rowan in research for as long as she could remember. She had travelled around Sinnoh, had achieved all eight badges and collected plenty of data in her Pokedex. She was a scholar that both the young and old looked up to. She had even saved Sinnoh ― twice!

But she still couldn't cook.

Poor Platinum.

* * *

"This looks great, Platinum," Blue said uneasily, using her fork to prod the weird black substance on her plate. Upon poking it, the slice of what she assumed was cake broke into tiny pieces. She glanced around the room and noticed that the other female dex holders were also staring at their cake warily.

"Thanks," Platinum mumbled, poking subtly at her own slice of cake. Even she was doubtful about eating the cake that she had baked.

"What flavour is it?" Yellow asked gently. She had been trying to cut a small, bite-sized piece for a few minutes now, but had only succeeded in creating a small mountain of black cake crumbs.

"Chocolate?" Crystal suggested when the younger girl refused to answer. Unlike the other two, her untouched cake remained on the table and she was trying to drink her tea as slowly as possible to avoid eating the cake.

"Coffee?" Sapphire guessed. She was already on her third cup of tea, and like Crystal, was eyeing her own slice of cake doubtfully and trying to drink her tea as slowly as possible.

"Vanilla," Platinum finally replied.

The room was filled with the sound of forks dropping onto the floor.

* * *

"You want to borrow my kitchen?" Silver said incredulously.

Platinum nodded. "I got banned from the kitchens at home."

"Go ahead," said Silver shrugging. He patted her head. "Just leave some of whatever you're cooking for me."

At that, Platinum gleefully skipped into the adjoining room, her pachirisu following her curiously. A smile tugged on Silver's face as he sat down on the sofa, cracking open a can of soda and switching on the television. He hasn't had a home-cooked meal for months, and the last time was when Crystal had dropped by and insisted that he joined her and Gold for dinner, instead of just eating takeaways all the time. His stomach growled at the thought of eating a good meal, and he looked forward to whatever his junior was making.

Oh how wrong he was.

* * *

A shriek filled the air and Silver leapt to his feet, grabbing the first object within his reach (the television remote). Weavile jumped up from its spot on the sofa and onto his shoulder and the two advanced cautiously to the kitchen.

Then Platinum exited the kitchen with her hands clasped behind her back. Her face was red and she looked embarrassed.

"Do you have any water Pokemon on you at the moment?"

* * *

"So let's get this straight. You were cooking just now."

"Yes."

"And you were making soup."

"Yes."

"And you managed to set fire to soup?"

"Um... Yes?"

* * *

Ruby was surprised to see Platinum on his doorstep.

"You want to learn how to cook?"

"Yes," Platinum said cheerfully. She rocked back and forth on her heels. "Silver told me to come to you because his kitchen is currently undergoing repairs."

"Repairs?" Ruby asked, stepping aside to allow the girl to enter. "Last week when I was there, it looked alright."

"It caught on fire."

"Arceus," Ruby gasped. "Is he alright?"

"His feraligator put out the fire and Silver kicked me out."

"Wait," Ruby said, looking horrified. "You were the one who set his stove on fire? What the heck were you making?!"

"Soup."

"Sweet Arceus."

* * *

Platinum was eager to learn, Ruby reckoned. There was no doubt about that. But she was a little too eager. By the time he had finished teaching her how to do a simple salad (Silver had sent him a message advising him to not let Platinum anywhere near something that might catch fire), his kitchen looked like a disaster zone.

"Why are you approaching us to teach you how to cook?" Ruby asked, using his fork to poke the salad that she had set in front of him. "Isn't Diamond a better cook than all of us put together?"

"He is," Platinum agreed, smiling brightly at the thought of her boyfriend. "But I wanted to surprise him with a home cooked meal since his birthday is coming up."

"That's nice," said Ruby. He gazed at the salad cautiously, but it seemed harmless enough (he had heard about the disastrous tea session from Blue and Sapphire). "Sapph doesn't really do anything for me on my birthday."

While waiting for her reply, he took a bite out of the salad, assuming that it was relatively alright, since he had sent Popo in to supervise her.

He choked.

"What the heck did you put in this?!"

* * *

"You added tamato berries to a salad? Were you trying to set his lungs on fire?"

Platinum held her hands out to placate her best friend. She was now at Pearl's place, since she had to call an ambulance because Ruby had collapsed at some point. Sapphire was also at Pearl's place, and was lying on his couch, watching television. However, surprisingly, she was quite calm about the whole Ruby situation.

"That sissy deserved it," Sapphire had said, when Platinum had nervously explained that she had accidentally sent her senior into the hospital. "He put a ribbon on Dono last week, so I guess I'll count this as payback."

* * *

"So this means that you've got banned out of three kitchens in less than two weeks," Pearl concluded. He clapped. "That should be some kind of record."

Platinum glared at him. "Don't be a pest."

"Why don't you just take him out to dinner or something?" Pearl suggested. "Then you won't kill anyone else by accident."

"Idiot!" Sapphire screeched suddenly. She hurled a cushion across the room, and it smacked Pearl straight in the face, causing him to fall backwards and crash on the floor. "Don't you know that the guy always asks the girl out? Not the other way around!"

"Is this why you're still waiting for Ruby to ask you out?"

Sapphire leaped over the sofa easily and charged towards him, her face contorted with rage.

Platinum looked at the girl's sharp nails and couldn't help but feel sorry for Pearl.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Platinum finally managed to stop Sapphire from attempting to murder Pearl by sending out her entire pokemon team to restrain the elder girl. Sapphire had left angrily after Empoleon had doused her with a weak hydro pump, muttering something about stupid boys and forgotten memories.

Pearl was now currently cowering under his dining table, hugging his knees. Platinum gave up on trying to persuade him to come out and joined him underneath the table with her cup of hot chocolate.

"Hey Pearl."

"Yes?"

"I need to ask a favour."

"Shoot."

There is no response. Pearl looked up and stared at the girl curiously. Then he saw the look in her eyes. Then he realised.

"Oh hell no."

* * *

It took a good hour to convince Pearl that she would not burn down his kitchen, and another two hours to assure him that she would not kill Diamond with her horrendous cooking skills. Finally, he agreed to let her borrow his kitchen, plus let her and Diamond have their celebratory dinner at his house.

"But I won't be there," Pearl warned her. "So for Mew's sake don't burn down the kitchen!"

"I won't," Platinum promised. She held up Empoleon's pokeball. "I can always put out the fire easily."

"If you really damage my kitchen, you're going to foot the remodelling bill."

"Done."

* * *

"This looks fantastic."

Her boyfriend of a few months, Diamond, was sitting at Pearl's dining table, and was gazing at the soup and salad that she had placed before him. He was confused as to why she had dragged him to Pearl's house to celebrate his birthday, but was pleasantly surprised when he realised that his girlfriend had prepared a meal for him.

Thankfully, when the other female pokedex owners had caught wind of her birthday celebration for Diamond, they all pitched in to help and gave her (foolproof) recipes. Blue had even stopped by earlier to keep her company (her main reason was actually because Pearl had begged her to keep an eye on his kitchen), and help with some of the dishes.

So far, the dinner was proceeding smoothly, and neither Diamond nor Platinum had suffered any aftereffects of her cooking. In fact, the food actually tasted quite good, and Platinum made a mental note to thank her seniors the next day.

All went well until they had dessert.

Diamond was the first to take a bite out of the chocolate cake, and almost immediately he downed his glass of water, coughing.

"Are you alright?" Platinum asked worriedly. Diamond shook his head and smiled at her, before continuing to resume eating the cake (at an extremely slow pace). Still, he avoided looking at her, and she grew suspicious.

Cautiously, Platinum took a bite out of her cake―

* * *

― and instantly spat it back onto her plate, throwing her ladylike manners out of the window.

"DON'T EAT IT!" Platinum shrieked (albeit too late) when she noticed that Diamond was still munching on the cake determinedly. The boy looked confused and stared at her.

"But you made it for me..."

"I don't care if Arceus made it, that cake isn't worth killing yourself for," Platinum replied, snatching both plates and heading to the kitchen to dispose them before Diamond could cram the remaining half of the cake into his mouth. When she returned, Diamond looked thoughtful.

"Platinum, it's a common mistake to accidentally use salt instead of sugar," he said carefully. She nodded and looked away, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"I know."

"But I still have no idea how you managed to use pepper instead of sugar."

"..."

* * *

"I'm so sorry I ruined the dessert," Platinum said to Diamond sheepishly. The two were curled up on Pearl's sofa, flicking through channels on his television.

"It's okay," Diamond says, squeezing her hand.

Platinum smiled at him and hugged his arm, but still, she felt a little upset for ruining what was her first (almost) accident-free meal. Then, she remembered Blue's advice before the older girl had left.

_"Don't worry. Just remember, if all else fails," the brunette had said with a grin. "Just give him some sugar!"_

_"Really?" Platinum had asked, intrigued. "Does that really help?"_

_"Yes!" Blue had laughed, before winking suggestively. "It always helps when Green is being mean to me."_

_Sugar,_ Platinum mused, and glanced over at Diamond. The boy was watching some cooking show intently, nodding every once in a while to show his approval, or shaking his head when a contestant made a mistake. Sensing that his girlfriend was staring at him, he quickly turned to her, and smiled.

_Don't worry..._

Her senior's advice was ringing in her head, and suddenly Platinum found herself slowly inching towards Diamond, her hand finding his and holding it tight, her eyes never leaving his.

_If all else fails..._

Diamond's eyes widened, but he didn't object, and squeezed her hand gently, his fingers intertwining with hers. Their faces were so close that their noses were touching and their cheeks were both flushed.

Their lips were only inches apart now...

Platinum free hand rested against his cheek, but before Diamond could lean in to close the gap―

― Platinum popped a sugar cube into his mouth.

_Just give him some sugar!_


End file.
